Sidney Fay Blake papers

Sidney Fay Blake (1892-1959) was a taxonomist who was recognized as one of the world's experts on botanical nomenclature. His area was the Compositae. In 1956 he was named one of the 50 greatest living botanists in America by the Botanical Society of America. Blake contributed a treatment of the Polygalaceae to the original North American Flora.

Additionally, Blake was a bibliographer. The "Geographical Guide to the Floras of the World" which he began with Alice C. Atwood, a librarian at the Department of Agriculture library, provides a reference to obscure and famous floras, both books and articles, arranged geographically.

He was born in Stoughton, Mass. on August 31, 1892. As a youth he came under the influence of Prof. R.G. Leavitt, a neighbor who happened to be a botanist at Harvard.

Blake entered Harvard with the purpose of studying botany. He studied with B.L. Robinson and M.L. Fernald. He received his Ph.D. in 1916. His thesis was on Viguiera.

Following graduation, he joined the U.S. Department of Agriculture under Frederick Coville in the Division of Botany where he prepared the Standardized Plant names. Blake refused promotions to adminstrative positions and for his entire career performed workmanlike tasks. All of his pure research was done in his spare time. His other areas of interest were paleontology and researching Sherlock Holmes for the Baker Street Journal.

In 1943 he was elected President of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists.

Blake was married to the former Doris M. Holmes, an entomologist. They resided in Arlington, Va. The Blakes had one daughter, Doris Sidney Ullman of Urbana, Ill.

Sidney Blake died in his laboratory at Beltsville, Md. on Dec. 31, 1959. He was memorialized in Taxon 9 (June, 1960), featuring his complete bibliography. His herbarium and library was acquired by the Texas Research Foundation. When the Texas Research Foundation was liquidated its property and lands were distributed to Texas A & M University and the University of Texas at Dallas and at Austin.